Big win for Lady Bears

Huge, huge win at home tonight for the E-town girls basketball team. E-town got 25 points from Sarah Fairbanks, 11 from Brianna Kuhn and 10 from senior Becca Bigler (likely playing in her final game in Daubert Gymnasium) and beat Solanco 58-53, their fourth straight win this year.

Before we get into the game a little, here's what the win means:
• E-town is still mathematically alive for the league playoffs. Solanco had been a perfect 8-0 against Section Two teams this season entering play tonight. But now, they find themselves at 8-7, one game behind 9-6 Ephrata for first place. E-town is now 7-8 in league play and one game behind Solanco for second place in Section Two with one game left. For E-town to make the league playoffs, it needs to win at Lebanon on Wednesday and for Solanco to lost at home to Garden Spot, who is just 3-12 in league play so far. The Spartans lost to Solanco by 30 the last time they played. So the Bears need to win and get an upset in order to get into leagues. But if Solanco loses and E-town wins, the Bears would get into the league playoffs based on tiebreakers.

• With a win on Wednesday night, the Bears will qualify for the District Three playoffs. They need no other help to make districts. They just need to win at Lebanon Wednesday. E-town beat Lebanon 39-37 in their only other meeting back on Jan. 9. Should be a great game.

Now, onto the game:
E-town got off to a quick start, scoring 14 points in the first and second quarters and led by 7 at the half. Solanco fought back in the third quarter, using a nice full court press to force some turnovers and sneak back into the game. Solanco went on a 10-0 run midway through the quarter to get within one, but E-town led 40-38 after three.

In the fourth, Solanco took its first lead of the night with 6:32 to play, but the Bears refused to go away, making plays when they needed to and going 12-17 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter. E-town trailed 50-49 with 2:00 to play, but ended the game on a 9-3 run to get the win.

I haven't transcribed interviews yet (I talked to head coach Mike Pericci and Fairbanks, Bigler and Kuhn after the game), but I can tell you that the Bears are a confident bunch and they're having an absolute blast right now. You can't say enough about this bunch. I mean, this is a team that won only 2 games last year and went 0-16 in league play. And now they are one win away from going to districts just one year later. What a fantastic turnaround. They're such a resilient bunch that it's insane. Pericci and his coaching staff have done a phenomenal job with this group, and the players have responded.

The atmosphere tonight was great too, with a loud, boisterous crowd. Now excuse me while I step up on my soapbox. There are times when adult fans go too far. I won't say who those fans were tonight, but if you were there, I'm sure you saw/heard this group (hint, they were sitting right behind me at the scorer's table.) I understand rooting for your team and maybe giving the refs a hard time every now and then (the officiating was questionable on BOTH sides tonight), but screaming at them repeatedly even when the call was correct is awful. If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone yell "WALK" when there clearly was no traveling violation, let's just say, I'd have a condo in the Bahamas. And, one more thing, it is absolutely REPREHENSIBLE for an adult to heckle high school players. Opposing student sections? Sure, as long as it doesn't go too far. But grown men and women have absolutely no business trying to get in the head of a 15, 16 or 17 year old kid. Wanting your kid's team to win is one thing, crossing a line and embarrassing players from your own team is another. OK, rant over.

But the actions of a few shouldn't take away from a fantastic game between two section rivals and from an overall fantastic crowd. Great job by the Lady Bears coming away with a win tonight.

Much more on this game in the print edition of this week's Chronicle, and also I'll check in for a preview of the Lebanon game and a recap of that one on Wednesday night as well.